Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Who needs drugs when you've got bulbs? More bulb-mania, this time a "Blue Group" near the riverbank. This is my "map" to help me keep track of what's here: 15 dwarf irises, 3 double-blue hyacinths, and 43 blue snow glories. All these bulbs are to be planted somewhat shallow (except the hyacinths), so I tried a different approach to amendment........I planted all of them, then top dressed with the "organic fertilizer" I got from John Scheepers. Watered them all in very well...okay, see y'all in the spring!
Next is the "Pink Combo"...I decided to put these in front of the foxtail lilies, just in case they manage to bloom at the same time. (Doubtful, but my weather has been weird, so maybe). This area has 38 tulips and 12 "pink buttercups", or oxalis adenophilia . I have never planted these...

....and the "bulb" confuses me. I mean, which way is up? I have a feeling I may have allowed these to dry out a bit much, so I soaked them in water before/during planting. Good thing I have plenty of tulips here, cuz' I have low confidence in these strange little things.


Once again, the handy step-on planter made the holes easy to dig, especially here where there aren't as many rocks.

I used a different amending approach here, too. I just planted the tulip, put back 2/3 of the dirt, then sprinkled some organic fertilizer in the hole above the bulb only. The directions called for only 1 teaspoon per hole, so there's still plenty left. Then I added the rest of the dirt, firmed in, but didn't water. (Rain was forecast.) No fertilizer for the oxalis, though.

One more area on this day, my French Lace tulip combo , which includes 3 purple and yellow muscari and 8 muscari comosum mixed in. These I amended the same as the "purple haze" area: pinch of pony manure, pinch of sand/soil, bulb, more sand, pinch of manure, rest of the sand, then firm in.
Just two more areas to go and I'm done...almost feels disappointing. (Almost! ;-)

12 comments:

Priscilla George said...

I like your plans. I can't wait to see how they turn out. It's great that you organized where you were going to put the bulbs.

Gotta Garden said...

I bow to your Spring-to-be! It is going to be fabulous!! I've been over reading and my computer and/or blogger refused to let me comment (before)...so, I'll make up for it now! I am so inspired!! You will have to take thousands of pictures (I'm not kidding!)!

Hey, you deserve a whirlpool soak and some Advil!

This is so exciting!

MrBrownThumb said...

Hi,

You know I've never thought of making a map to locate my bulbs. Very sharp idea, I'll have to use it sometime.

Wicked Gardener said...

Wow - that is organized!!

Katie said...

I always make maps too. But alas, I never seem to be able to follow them!

The hard part is over. Now you get to enjoy!

EAL said...

Oxalis. Hmmm. There might be hardiness issues there--at least I have had those issues here. But then who knows with how the weather has been!

Dying to the see the pictures in the spring!

lisa said...

Vanillalotus-Thanks! I'm excited, too!

Gotta Garden-Thank you! Someday I will have a hot tub, but for now it's Advil and a heating pad!

Mr. Brownthumb-Thank you! I came up with the idea because I needed to know what's where, but didn't want to use metal markers for every single one. This way, even if I'm planting something in the fall, I know where my bulbs are sleeping so I don't dig into them.

Wicked-Yea, I wish that organization translated into other aspects of my life ;-)

Katie-Heh, I make the maps as I go, and there are always scribbles and corrections :)

EAL-Yea, I wondered about the oxalis, too. The website said hardy to zone 4, but I think the nurseries sometimes stretch the truth to sell stuff. But I'm with you-our weather has been so weird, what the heck!

Connie said...

All those bulbs....how delightful! Will be looking forward to seeing some photos of them in the spring. :-)

lisa said...

Connie-Oh yea, me too!

Ki said...

Hey your bulb planting is infectious. We just planted almost 500 tulips, daffodils and crocus...my aching back. Didn't use bone meal or fertilizer this time for efficiency sake so we'll see how this experiment fares next spring.

David (Snappy) said...

Hi Lisa, does the first photo of the treasure/spring bulb map have a fox on the corner of it?
Im impressed how organised you are.I placed my bulbs before on the surface trying to work out height and colour. Then i propmtly forgot where they were!Springtime suprise!
They are lovely plans!

lisa said...

Ki-Wow...I feel your pain! (Really!) That's gonna look spectacular, though! Most of the literature I get with my bulbs suggests they are fine without amending until they come up, so I bet yours will do well. My soil is so sandy that I feel the need to "help"...hopefully not TOO much!

Snappy-Yes that's a fox, I was using note paper I had lying around for mapping. I just feel better knowing where they are, especially if I'm digging in off season and there's no foliage to see.